Sckàll
by Celnes Billa
Summary: A Hobgoblin warrior wanders a battlefield, covered with the dead of his kind and the raiding Kuo-Toa. Through his searching, he contemplates the situation at hand and whether war will be the result of it. (Rated-T for descriptions of violence).


Sckàll

by

Celnes Billa

Place: Brethon Island

Region: Northern Gaelicia

Year: 782-Thridda Age

The sea was quiet this evening, beneath a partially cloudy sky that was rapidly engulfing the sun beneath its white and grey girth.

The beach was a bloody battlefield, covered with the corpses of Kuo-Toa and Hobgoblin warriors alike. Their blood mixed in unpleasantly with the yellow sand and created horrid stench that permeated the air all around and many of it was also beginning to leak into the sea as well.

The Kuo-Toa raid packs were starting to get larger and more aggressive now, and the possibility of a large scale invasion was beginning to become a very likely outcome of it.

The Hobgoblin tribes however, weren't the only race that were attacked. Several coastal Pixie and Hin tribes in the region, had also been assailed by the sea-dwelling scum. Though, the Hobgoblins couldn't care less about those races, and were only giving each other help, as well as their smaller cousins the Goblins.

Walking across the battlefield, with the orders to take out any straggling Kuo-Toas was a young Hobgoblin warrior named Sckàll. He was tall, and strongly built as most Hobgoblins are, with brownish-red skin and shoulder-length, scraggly hair. His yellow-green eyes were constantly on the alert, and searching the bloodied beach for even a single twitch of movement.

He had not been involved in this skirmish, but had fought in 2 before and had found the Kuo-Toas to be relatively easy foes to defeat one on one, due to their unwillingness to wear armour and smaller size compared to his kind. However, when in groups they were far more difficult and dangerous. One tactic they used that Sckàll considered to be rather clever, was covering their shields with some sort of slime, that caused their opponent's weapons to get stuck to them. So they were not as mindless and simple as some thought.

So far, he had only encountered three barely alive Kuo-Toas and he had quickly freed them of their misery. The rest of his war band were spread out in other areas of the beach, doing the same task as him. Truth be told, he found it rather pointless as the wounded would eventually die of blood loss and any none-fatally wounded would have retreated into the sea by this point. Still though, he was also told to keep an eye out for any wounded Hobgoblins and assist them if necessary, be it help them back to the stronghold or free them into the afterlife. He had not encountered any surviving members of his own kind yet however.

Despite his outward calmness and concentration, the young Hobgoblin's mind was troubled and anxious. The attacks were becoming larger, more frequent and far more aggressive each year. More and more of them seemed to come from the sea and no matter how many they killed, the Kuo-Toa would always come back shortly after and far larger in number than before.

Just when would they stop coming? Just when would they kill all of them? Sckàll had no idea and though he tried to repress it, he was beginning to think that these Sea-demons were just going to keep coming until they completely overtook the entire island.

No, he wouldn't let that happen. His kind wouldn't let that happen. They were warriors above all, and they would never stop fighting those monsters, even to the last breath and he doubted the other races of Brethon would allow them a single acre of this island as well.

That last thought lifted Sckàll's spirits a little. They were going to be able to handle them, because at the end of the day, the Hobgoblins were not alone in this at all.

A horn blew out from the forest, which meant the Warchief was calling them back to the stronghold for the night. Sckàll and the rest of his war band regrouped and began to leave the beach.

But Sckàll turned back one last time to observe the battlefield, and it would be a scene that he would witness many times to come.

The End

* * *

_Author's Note_: I feel as though I could have explored Sckàll's character a little more, like how I gave Eglum in my previous fic's some quirks, like his easy boredom and affinity for drawing. But I am happy with this overall, and both characters are going to be explored far more in-depth in my upcoming story.

Thanks for reading.


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